.. Then there is little S.U. (do you know S.U.?), who isn't too happy with her work and asked me if I couldn't help her make some progress. So I told her, "Read Satprem's book ...." She started reading Satprem's book. She told me "If I don't understand something, what do I do?" I said, "If you can't understand, ask me." So yesterday, she quoted a bit of a sentence to me (you know how they do: they take a bit of a sentence and ask you, "Whatever does this mean?!"). I answered. It was a sentence in which it was said that there were two "positions": the materialist and the spiritualist; then you mention me, saying we should take another position, a "third position." She didn't understand (Mother gives Satprem the child's letter). [["I like Satprem's book which You gave me. But I have two difficulties. The first is with the words. There are some words whose meaning I do not know. And the second is that some passages are not clear. Here is one: 'What we may call with Mother a third position, a 'something else' we tenaciously need, we who are neither narrow materialists nor exclusive spiritualists.'" ]]

My answer is prompt. But I felt like saying to her, "Another time, what if you went and asked Satprem?"

It wouldn't have the same effect!

No, but you could explain better! (Mother laughs)

Ah, no!
You can keep this if it amuses you ... my comments on your book! (Mother gives her reply)

"In the world, people generally classify themselves as materialists who believe in nothing but matter, or as spiritualists who reject matter in order to lean on the spirit alone.
"Sri Aurobindo is neither a materialist nor a spiritualist. He admits both, but wants a matter transformed, divinized by the spirit, capable of expressing the truth instead of constantly denying it."

page 217-18 , Mother's Agenda , volume 10 , 25th June - 1969

But you know, this little S.U. (I've never said this; I forget when it was - years ago, she was big as a boot), when your famous Sannyasin [[The Sannyasin who initiated Satprem. ]] came here, he wanted to do a worship to the Mother, [[Mother is referring to a special puja or Tantric ritual (kumari puja) during which the officiant brings down certain forces - an emanation of the Mother - into a very young girl. This was on October 20, 1958. ]] and he did one thing ... which isn't regarded as very charitable (that individual had a certain capacity): he put into this child an emanation of a higher spirit (which he thought was an emanation of the Mother), he carried out the ceremony, and afterwards (it was infinitely too powerful for the child), he came to me and told me, "I'll send her to you for you to take out the emanation, we can't keep that!"

So he sent me the child.

And I saw that he had put something into her (which was fine, by the way; it wasn't at all a bad thing, it was fine), and for several days, I did the work to see what could be adapted without upsetting the child's consciousness too much, and to drive out what was too strong .... The work was interesting, and I did it successfully, so it gave the little girl a sort of trust in me (naturally I didn't say anything to her, no one has ever said anything to her), but it gave her a rather exceptional trust (she was very small, a tiny thing). Since then, for that reason, I have taken interest in this child. Because there really is an aspiration in her - it has created an aspiration in her being. And that's why I decided to help her, and why I've told you about it .... She had some stuff (he was rather sensitive, your Sannyasin, he felt she was receptive). If he had asked me before, I would have told him, "For heaven's sake don't do that, it's not something to be done!" - He might have upset the child's whole life. But at the time, he had some semblance of trust in me: he came to me and said, "Now this should be taken out" (Mother laughs)

But the child knows nothing, she mustn't know.

It seems that among those Sannyasins and others, it's often done ... but it's dangerous.


page 220 , Mother's Agenda , volume 10 , 25th June - 1969

Oh, I've received this from little S.U., again in relation to your book:

(Mother holds out a letter)


Sweet Mother,
What is the idea behind this sentence from the "Adven ture": "Unfortunately, the West has too much intelligence to

have much clear vision to translate outwardly, while India,

too full within, is not demanding enough to match what she

lives with what she sees"?

(Mother smiles and

dictates straight off)

It means that in the West (especially in France), the intellectual development has prevailed over the spiritual development and the contact with higher regions, while in India, the inner knowledge has remained more developed than the intellectual field.
We could put the sentence thus:

The West expresses more than it really knows.
India knows more than it really can express.
Enough!


page 223-24 , Mother's Agenda , volume 10 , 25th June - 1969